Beating the Devil's Game: A History of Forensic Science and Criminal by Katherine Ramsland

what they could to save him, drenching him in vinegar. Then they cleaned up the floor and went to bed, leaving the body lying in a bedroom. The servants, who had witnessed this scene, sent for a priest, who in turn notified a magistrate. He noticed strange marks around the mouth of the corpse, and burns in the dead man’s mouth and throat. He arrested the count and countess, pending an investigation, and ordered an autopsy. Gustave’s organs were placed in jars and sent to the chemical researcher Jean Servois Stas (in some sources, Stass). He had studied in Paris under the likes of Orfila and now, at the age of thirty-seven, was a chemistry professor at the École Royale Militaire in Brussels. As a boy, he had set up his own chemistry lab in the attic of his parents’ home, even making the instruments himself, and they were surprisingly precise.
    While the victim appeared to have swallowed some kind of agent that burned, it was not clear exactly what this substance was. Given the use of vinegar (which he could smell), Stas believed Lydie and Hippolyte had attempted to neutralize or conceal some type of alkaloid, or vegetable-based poison. However, many chemists, including Orfila, were convinced that while metallic poisons could be identified, it was not so easy with alkaloids, which included morphine, nicotine, and strychnine. In fact, it seemed quite impossible, because tests used to detect poison destroyed the very substance being tested. But Stas was certain there was a way to isolate and test for any substance, so he worked on the problem for three months, dividing the victim’s bodily tissues into several groups for different types of analysis, including smell and taste. Finally, using ether as a solvent, which he then evaporated to isolate the questioned substance, he found the potent drugs: coniine and nicotine.
    A gardener recalled how Hippolyte had worked with tobacco leaves to create a perfume, and local pharmacists acknowledged that he had asked them questions about nicotine’s toxic effect. In fact, he had practiced on animals and their corpses were available for toxicological analysis. (Stas also sacrificed several dogs to see if he got similar results.) Hippolyte’s home was thoroughly searched and the authorities found a secret lab where he did the nicotine extraction. Stas even found traces of nicotine on the scrubbed floor. It became clear by logical deduction that Hippolyte had extracted this toxin from tobacco and force-fed it to the victim. When he used vinegar to mask the smell, it had caused the burns, and this gave Hippolyte away. With Gustave’s already weak constitution, it had not been difficult, but even on a strong person, this poison could cause death within minutes, via respiratory arrest.
    The couple stood trial together in 1851. With Stas’s testimony, the killer was convicted, making Stas the first person to discover poisonous vegetable extracts in the body. Lydie begged for mercy and said that her husband had forced her into helping to kill her brother. The jury acquitted her, letting her go, while they sent Hippolyte to the guillotine.
    Other toxicologists then developed qualitative tests with the Stas procedure to determine the presence of various alkaloids in the obtained extract. Yet with more work, a problem was evident: false reactions. At times, an alkaloid might form in a corpse that mimicked the test reactions for vegetable alkaloids. These substances were dubbed “cadaveric alkaloids” and they showed the need for better tests, especially in court. For every stride in forensic science, there was a dogged attorney to challenge it. That dialectic, while daunting at times, offered benefits to both sides. As new sciences emerged to play a part in the courtroom, these lessons were invaluable. The embarrassment of some professionals often lay the groundwork for others to refine the methods. Eventually the courts would set guidelines and standards, but for the moment, legal